Tall story shame for climber who fell short on K2

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Christian Stangl said that this image of him was on the summit of K2. It was not

Ed Douglas

Published at 12:01AM, September 18 2010

It seemed an incredible feat. After 70 hours of lung-bursting effort, Christian Stangl trudged into K2 base camp in mid-August claiming he had reached the summit. Of the scores of climbers aiming for the world’s second-highest peak last summer, the Austrian appeared to be the only one to have reached the 8,611m-high (28,250ft) top, overcoming deep snow and freezing temperatures.

His story, however, really was incredible. The photograph that claimed to show him on the summit had clearly been taken lower down the mountain. The doubts grew.

Last week, Mr Stangl finally confessed on Austrian television that his ascent of